We are merely days into the official 2020 election cycle and already the media is confused, the nomination system is broken and most importantly, people are tired.
There is not enough space in a student newspaper column to fully explain the laconic and unrepresentative process that is the Iowa Caucus. However, it is worth exploring what went wrong Monday night in order to learn from our mistakes before our own turn in the nomination process comes on March 10 for Democrats and May 19 for Republicans.
Iowa’s delegation process is equal parts homecoming court campaigning, social media missteps and a truly unique boots-on-the-ground approach
to deciding who the next Democratic nominee should be. After months of rallies, fundraising and canvassing, the candidates and their volunteer bases sit patiently and wait for good news while Iowans pack into high school gyms. That is where any and all similarities to the common primary system ends.
Once at their allotted precincts, Iowans form amoebas in designated portions of their polling places to visually represent support for their chosen candidates. Less- represented candidates may fail to cross the “viability threshold” of at least 15%
of a precinct’s support. This eliminates them from receiving any support from that district and forces those that initially caucused for them to throw their support in for their second choice.
Debates rage, delegates are awarded and literal coin flips can decide ties. The process often takes hours. For all the energy and money dedicated to the Hawkeye State, the end product is a mockery of our system and an embarrassment to Americans far beyond Des Moines.
Late in the night, the totals from each district are counted and a candidate is declared to be the winner of the caucus, except for this year. The short version of the disaster report: there were no results to report by midnight.
The Iowa Democratic Party did not accomplish its most important task of deciding a winner. Time slots usually reserved for victory speeches and dalliances with newfound momentum were instead consumed by pontificating and talking heads without any content. The votes were not counted properly, even though every cable network, political organization and local news station had cottage industries dedicated to this first step to November.
The Iowa Caucus proved once again that it should not exist. The process of Democratic nomination has massively disadvantaged itself when it could have simply started with at least the same primary system that more than 80 %of the nation uses. Sure, caucusing adds some element of theatricality to politics, but at the cost of our democracy and sanity. A state that is more than 90 % white and represents less than 0.5% of our nation’s population should not be able to cause this much chaos.
We simply have to get rid of the caucuses altogether in favor of ranking primaries. Voter apathy is a problem everywhere but embarrassingly so in Iowa, where less than 16% of eligible Iowans caucused in 2016. Apparently, it isn’t all that appealing to argue with your neighbors for hours over politics on a weeknight.
Instead, we need to make sweeping changes to our primary system as a whole. Idaho, along with every other state, employs a winner-take-all primary system that only allows for one vote for one candidate. Alternatively, voters would be able to rank as many candidates as desired from most to least favorable as the nominee. In Iowa and the other caucus states specifically, this would eliminate the need for hours of caucusing that apparently can be for absolutely no purpose. Additionally, voters torn between two similar candidates would be able to signal their complex political preferences by qualifying their votes and giving some support to other candidates.
Our nation can’t keep pretending as if preserving traditions is worth sacrificing voter participation and tainting results. Thankfully, Idaho took a step toward realizing this by switching from Democratic caucuses to primaries in 2018.
At the local level, Idahoans have plenty of time to ensure smooth sailing in our part of the process. Early voting for the Democratic primary begins Feb. 24 in Latah County, and all absentee ballots must be received by 5:00 p.m. Feb. 28 to be counted.
If you are not sure whether you are registered, idahovotes.gov offers the resources necessary to register, find a polling place or apply for an absentee ballot. Remember that Idaho implements a closed-party primary system, meaning that you cannot vote in a Republican primary if you are a registered Democrat, and vice versa. Unaffiliated voters may vote in either or both, given that the party decides to allow them. Whatever you do, educate and prepare yourself to ensure the smoothest possible experience whenever you decide to cast your vote.
Usually, we spend hours and column inches debating the viability of policies and candidates. It is an utter disgrace that we now have dedicated them to lambasting our laconic version of the democratic process. The caucuses have to go if we are going to attain the level of democracy we so proudly claim.
Jonah Baker can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @jonahpbaker